Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My folks have often told the story that when I was an infant, my first favorite TV show was Batman. They tell me that whenever I heard the theme song, I would dance around in my crate with total joy and abandon. While I have no memory of this, I have every reason to believe it is true. As well as photographic evidence.

My Pops had a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the 60s. (While I wouldn't call him an audiophile, he has always been an early adopter of all home audio/video capture equipment. Which he passed down to me in his DNA. But more on that in future installments.) He was so entertained by my unbridled joy that he went out and bought the Batman soundtrack LP and made a 30 minute reel-to-reel recording of nothing but the theme song. And I'm sure I was happy to play the dancing monkey.

Decades later, long after I stopped reading comic books, I still have a primal fondness for The Dark Knight. The only films I ever get excited about anymore are new Batman and James Bond films. (007 also being another discussion for another time.)

But while Digging Through The Crates today, I found the Batman album. The actual Batman album that my Pops bought to make that endless loop. I stole it from his collection years ago. And I will travel with it wherever the road may take me.

Monday, February 18, 2013

A recent post by a Facebook pal reminded me of one of my favorite songs, Dean Friedman's Ariel. While I don't remember ever performing this song live, I did have one of my bands run through it in rehearsals. So I dug out the tape and digitized it. Killer on bass! From an Elgin, IL practice in late '83 or early '84. Grab the mp3 now. Limited supply.